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Line 1: − Pasteur's proof of this theory involved the first scientific experiment to falsify a hypothesis, ushering an era of scientific medicine. +
Child bed fever & germ theory
The '''Germ theory of disease''', developed in the 1860s and 1870s by [[Louis Pasteur]], states that [[microorganisms|tiny "living beings"]] are the cause of infectious diseases. [http://www.mansfield.ohio-state.edu/~sabedon/biol2007.htm#sta20005.htm#microorganism]
The '''Germ theory of disease''', developed in the 1860s and 1870s by [[Louis Pasteur]], states that [[microorganisms|tiny "living beings"]] are the cause of infectious diseases. [http://www.mansfield.ohio-state.edu/~sabedon/biol2007.htm#sta20005.htm#microorganism]
The theory was developed to explain puerperal fever, or [[Child bed fever]]. [http://www.harvestfields.ca/HerbBooks/01/12bk/01/170.htm] Beginning sometime in the nineteenth century, science began replacing the millenial old practice of midwifery, and physicians began delivering babies in hospitals. Puerperal fever was transmitted from patient to patient on the hands of the attending physician, and both women and the new born frequently died within days. Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, using the controversial theory of microscopic organisms tinier than the eye could see was the first to insist that all practitioners must wash their hands before having contact with women in childbed, and Joseph Lister, who first introduced antisepsis into surgical practice. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3686/is_200304/ai_n9213545]
He showed that the theory of [[spontaneous generation]] was false, by placing one piece of meat under a glass jar and another in an open dish. He observed flies landing on the exposed meat, but of course flies could not penetrate the glass jar. Flies did not come out of nothing, but from eggs deposited by flies which he could easily see landing on the exposed meat.
He showed that the theory of [[spontaneous generation]] was false, by placing one piece of meat under a glass jar and another in an open dish. He observed flies landing on the exposed meat, but of course flies could not penetrate the glass jar. Flies did not come out of nothing, but from eggs deposited by flies which he could easily see landing on the exposed meat.